Nonfarm payrolls dropped by 125,000 in June and private nonfarm payrolls increased by 83,000 as the federal government wound down temporary employment for the 2010 Census, the Labor Department reported today. The unemployment rate fell to 9.5, the lowest level eleven months.
Payroll employment for the Census 2010 fell by 225,000, pushing total payrolls negative for the first time since December. Through the first six months of 2010, private-sector employment has increased by 593,000.
Nonfarm payrolls were revised higher for May to an increase of 433,000 from 431,000 and for April to 313,000 from 290,000. In the private sector, May's payrolls were revised lower to 33,000 from 41,000 reported last month. April's private sector was revised higher to 241,000 from 218,000.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected nonfarm payrolls would decrease by 110,000 and for the unemployment rate to increase to 9.8%, according to the median estimate.
Payrolls in the goods-producing sector fell by 6,000, the first decline since February. Service providing businesses cut 117 workers, the first decline since December.
Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees were flat at $19.00 in June following two months of increases. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees stayed steady at 33.4 hours as May's workweek was revised lower to 33.4 hours. The average workweek for all workers decreased by 0.1 hour, or six minutes, to 34.1 hours.
Economists expected average hourly earnings would increase 0.1% and the workweek to remain 34.2 hours, according to the median Thomson Reuters estimate.
